I went to work in the Langford reserve office today, mainly so I could ask Michael for his autograph now he's becoming a TV star! At lunchtime I took a walk out onto the reserve. The weather's changed in the last couple of weeks to have an autumnal feel, with cooler mornings, stronger winds and changeable weather. One of the great pleasures of autumn is seeing all the different colours. Today I was struck by the following colours:
Red - hawthorn and guelder rose berries, rose hips, male common darter dragonflies
Yellow - the flowers of autumn hawkbit, common cat's-ear, lady's bedstraw and bird's-foot-trefoil
Black - elderflower and dogwood berries
Purple - flowers of selfheal and the sloes of blackthorn and fruits of wild plums
White - plumage of little egrets, flowers of white clover, white deadnettle, white campion and wild carrot, and the seed heads of creeping thistle
Pink - flowers of common stork's-bill, cut-leaved crane's-bill and musk mallow
I always like bramble bushes at this time of year with their crops of blackberries in different stages of development and colour. In my natal Suffolk there was a saying that "blackerries are green when they're red".
I walked down to the Phase 1 reedbed in the hope of seeing a bittern, as I'm one of the few regular observers who hasn't seen one on the reserve. I've heard tales of them flying about, seen pictures of them sat up in the reeds but I have the effect of bringing out their normal shy behaviour. And true to form I didn't see one, although my hopes weren't high when I saw the wind buffeting the reedbed - any self-respecting bittern would have been sheltering in the base of the reedbed, and I can't say I could blame them.
Four little egrets were about as were three common snipe. Walking back I saw a hornet flying along a stretch of sheltered hedge. There were dozens of common darters along the woodland edge with a few migrant hawkers.